 Not many student publications are listed in the Bibliography of American Literature, but this one is. And that is because the lead-off entry in this anthology of stories is Frank Norris' “Travis Hallett's Half-back.” Norris (1870–1902) was class of '94.

It may interest the reader to know that half of the writings in this volume are by women.

Sole edition. The volume was a fund-raising effort: “The principal reason that these stories have been gathered together and given to the public, is to start a fund wherewith to erect a fountain on the Campus of the University of California to be in harmony with the great Hearst architectural plan.”

Binding: Publisher's blue cloth stamped in gilt with title and a scene of a rolling hill with trees on it. Binding signed “Kales.”

 Definitely this work was created by a bibliophile for fellow lovers of the book. When this work appeared, Uzanne (1852–1931) was in full stride as a leader of the Paris circle of men and women interested in handsomely illustrated, printed, and bound works of literature. In 1880 he launched Miscellanées bibliographiques and, soon after Son altesse la femme appeared. he introduced the influential periodicals Le Livre, Le Livre moderne, and L'Art et l'Idée. In 1889, he took part in the creation of a publishing company, the “League of Contemporary Bibliophiles.” He counted among his friends the artists Jean Lorrain, Barbey d'Aurevilly, and Remy de Gourmont.

The work was limited to 100 copies, all printed on Japan vellum. It has an engraved vignette on the black and red printed title, small illustrations or vignettes on 50 text pages, 11 vignette borders or headpieces (three of them in color, 10 of them in anextra state), and 10 tipped-in color plates. The illustrations are by Henri Gervex, J.A. Gonzalès, L. Kratké, Albert Lynch, Adrien Moreau, and Félicien Rops.

 Promotional gift book created by Charles Pratt & Co. for “patrons of ours already, or shall become such hereafter” to celebrate the Christmas season (p. [5]). The text contains a variety of poems and songs — some about Christmas, some not — from Longfellow, Robert Burns, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Keats, and more. A surprising number of poems discuss death, and one from the Cottonian MS. beseeches women not to be “wilful wives.”

Following the poetry section there is a series of advertisements for products such as Pratt's Astral Oil and double-deodorized benzine. This is an interesting, attractive little relic of an era when manufacturers of such humble products sought surprisingly often to associate themselves with Much Higher Things — often going to real trouble and expense to do so!

 Beige printed wrappers with “1888" written on the front cover in ink and a small pink stain at top edge; light age-toning. (36736)

 Inscribed on a page of Walsh's autograph album is this wonderful sentiment and advice:

“The affectionate interest which I have always entertained for the welfare & happiness, of the eldest daughter, & proper representative, of one of the most estimable, and accomplished ladies who ever adorned the society of Philadelphia, induces me to comply with a request of the possessor of this volume, to inscribe some lines upon one of its pages.

It were impossible to contribute wiser counsel, or more excellent lessons, than those already recorded in this Album, by her honoured Father, & several of his, & her Mothers [sic] friends.

I will only commend her to the most faithful observation of that advice, and to the strictest imitation of the pure & bright example, furnished in the character of her departed & lamented Mother, whose unostentation piety, gave especial grace & dignity to her life, and has no doubt yielded for her immortal spirit, a precious & enduring rest, in Heaven.”

Vaux was a noted lawyer, philanthropist, abolitionist, and civic leader. Miss Walsh (b. 8 July 1812) was the daughter of Robert Walsh (lawyer and abolitionist) and Anna Maria Moylan Walsh (who died in 1826).

Provenance: The Walsh album sold at Anderson Galleries 28 November 1921 (sale 1609) as lot 60. Later in the Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.

 Here for the first time a Mexican explains the reasoning behind “Sanctissimus Dominus,” the papal bull that Innocent XI issued in 1679 condemning65 propositions that had been examined by the Inquisition and found to be contrary to the tenets and teachings of the Church. The Roman Catholic Church believed that the condemned propositions favored a liberal approach to moral theology, many of them being based in probabilism, a path of reasoning followed by the Jesuits — a path totally rejected by the conservative orders such as the Augustinians, and definitely rejected by the Dominicans who dominated the Holy Office.

Velasco presents the condemned concepts (printed in italic type) one by one and then explains why each has been condemned by the Inquisition. He was a Franciscan and “Lector de Visperas de Theología . . . en esta Nueva-España.”

The twelve-page appendix contains 45 propositions that Pope Alexander VII had condemned, here with summaries of what other writers had done to explain the reasoning for their condemnation. The propositions were mostly Jansenist.

The work is from the press of one of Mexico's famed “widow printers,” Paula Benavides, the widow of Bernardo Calderon.

Sole edition.

Provenance: Undated (late 17th- or early 18th-century) ownership inscription of the Convent of San Antonio of Queretaro on the verso of the title-page, faded. Partial marca de fuego on top edge, undeciphered because it is so partial.

Via NUC and WorldCat we locate only two copies in U.S. libraries, but we know of a third. Searches of COPAC, CCPB, and the OPAC of the Spanish National Library find no copies in Britain or Spain. The OPAC of the Mexican national library on the other hand, shows seven copies held there.

 Andrade 751; Medina, Mexico, 1238. Contemporary limp vellum, no evidence of ties; rear cover with brown staining and piece of rear pastedown excised, with vellum a little small for the text block. Faint and sometimes noticeable waterstain in lower corner of some leaves. (34770)

 Number 1 in the “Speaker Series,” including rousing patriotic speeches, poems by Edgar Allan Poe and others, and ananti–women's suffrage argument. This is a revised and enlarged reprint of the original 1859 appearance, here in orange wrappers bearing a wood-engraved vignette of an orator, the 98 William Street address, and the Beadle's “dime” illustration.

 Publisher's printed copper-colored paper wrappers; back wrapper lacking, front wrapper separating from foot and with small nicks to outer edge. One leaf with closed slit across, not spoiling sense of text; outer edges waterstained. A nice encapsulation of mainstream “presentable” thought on the literature, culture, politics, etc. of the day. (35088)

 A theological and legal treatise on confessors and confession and the sacrament of penance with the emphasis on abuse of the confessional by priests. Telling a priest one's moral and legal transgressions empowers the weak or corrupt priest to then blackmail the parishioner for money or sex or other “favors.”

Father Vilaplana (1712–63), a native of Benimarfull, Valencia, Spain, was a Franciscan, a university lecturer in theology, and an “examiner” for the Inquisition. His handbook gives examples of abuses, lays out the pertinent canon laws and papal edicts, and has a section of questions to be asked of accused priests during court proceedings. The work also discusses punishment and other disciplines that the crimes demand.

Since abuse of the confessional fell under the authority of the Inquisition, this work is de facto a manual for Inquisitors.

This is the “Editio secunda locupletior in paucis.” The Bibliotheca Mexicana was the private press of the great bibliographer, writer, and secular cleric Juan Jose de Eguiara y Eguren.

 Medina, Mexico, 5026; Palau 365782. Contemporary limp vellum, rodent-gnawed along several edges with a small loss of vellum. Front endpapers with loss to silverfish. Text unwormed and clean. (29773)

 Short bibliographical essays on such topics as Spanish-language printing in Italy in the 16th century, Spanish books on chess and onwomen in the 15th through the 17th centuries, and the Ibarra press.

This copy with an authorial inscription to a recipient whose name has been gently, but entirely, obliterated!

 Sole edition illustrated by Clara Tice, the illustrations numbering ten, printed in color, and definitely of an erotic nature. This copy (no. 130) is one of 250 copies “on special deckle-edge Pannekoek paper.” The title-page, printed in black and red, announces this is an “Exact reprint of the earliest English text” and tells us that it was “printed in Holland by Joh. Enschede en Zonen for the Bennett Libraries, Inc.”

In the early decades of the 20th century, Tice was a sensation because of her provocative art and as the embodiment of bohemian Greenwich Village — gaining, indeed, the sobriquet “The Queen of Greenwich Village.”

Binding: Publisher's black goat, round spine with raised bands lettered in gilt and with a gilt-stamped female nude figure in center area of spine; front cover with two gilt-stamped reclining female nude figures reminiscent of those on big-rig mud guards! Elegant gilt turn-ins, top edge gilt and other edges deckle. Housed in a brown paper–covered open-back case.

 Case rubbed but sound; binding as above with spine a little pulled, corners a little bumped, and front joint (outside) a little abraded. First leaves separated and tipped in; possibly, cancels? All illustrations eye-popping in several senses; all tissue guards present. (33447)

 Mrs. Wade died in 1893. She was born in New Hampshire and moved to Pittsburgh after marrying a businessman of that city; a prominent social figure there, she was also a trained singer and composed several songs published during her lifetime. Her loving husband compiled and published this volume of her poetry “for her friends.”

We locate only five libraries (three in Pittsbugh) reporting ownership of the work.

Provenance: Inscribed to Mrs. John R. McCune by the writer of the volume's biographical sketch of the author, “Frank H. Wade, M.D.,” and his wife.

 “Perhaps no city in the universe, barring the 'Monster London,' may boast of more epicurean grandeur in the form of fashionable clubs, than may Paris, with its dazzling array of nobles and celebrities”: A novel by Lavinia Walsh, illustrated with a tissue-guarded, black and white frontispiece of one of the two protagonists — two men with a secret, scandalous connection, fighting with deadly results over a name and identity.

WorldCat locates only five U.S. institutional copies of this, Walsh'ssole novel.

 Publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering to front board and spine, blind double-ruled border and gilt device to front board; edges and extremities rubbed, spine lightly faded, top edge gilt. Deckled fore-edge and bottom edge untrimmed in some spots, small tears or small spots of loss to bottom edge of a few of leaves; not an “abused” copy, but a “read” one, with some spotting or staining and leaves at rear with a light crease across corners. Sound and pleasant. (37794)

 First major appearance of Walton's beloved treatise in combination with his collected lives of authors, the set (here in its stated second edition) charmingly illustrated with copper-engraved plates and wood-engraved in-text illustrations. The Angler plates generally represent dashing young men — and a few young ladies — in the garb of Walton's day, while many of the in-text illustrations depict hooked fish; the Lives volume opens with a representation of the subjects' signatures within a decorative frame and includes, along with a portrait of each, ten renditions of important moments and locations in the subjects' careers as well as numerous smaller portraits, coats of arms, etc. Each volume is decorated with a vertical fore-edge painting.

Fore-edges:Angler with two jaunty 17th-century gentlemen and their rods and lines, Lives with a portrait of Walton, both paintings within arabesque frames.

 A young nobleman seduces and murders an Oxford merchant's beautiful daughter, then takes to his bed and dies of guilt and despair. The title-page bears a woodcut vignette of a young woman in a bonnet and cloak leaning against a gate, with "[No.] 9." printed at the foot.

 This ed. not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages age-toned; one leaf with outer margin cropped closely. (16768)

Ward, William. Farewell letters to a few friends in Britain and America, on returning to Bengal, in 1821. New York: E. Bliss & E. White, 1821. 12mo. 250 pp.$275.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 Ward (1769–1823) was a printer and a missionary in Serampore, in the Bengal region of India. He learned printing in Derby, England, and in 1799 went to the Danish settlement in Serampore where he printed and supervised the printing of translations of the scriptures intoBengali, Tamil, and more than 20 other languages. He somehow also found time to preach and do other missionary work.

Health concerns forced him to leave India in 1818, but he returned in 1821. During his years away he lectured and travelled in the U.S. and England, raising money for his mission.

The present collection of letters first appeared in London in 1821 and this is its first American edition. His letters have much to say about his work and the native population; he is acutely aware ofthe position and treatment of women and in more than one letter addresses the issue.

Provenance: The Rochester Divinity School, which in the 19th century trained more than a few noteworthy missionaries to India.

 Shoemaker 7568. Original boards covered in blue-green paper; rebacked in the style of the era. Ex-library with 19th-century stamp on title and librarian's pencilling on verso of same. Foxing throughout. Uncut and partially unopened: a good, solid copy. (34989)

“IBelieve She Was Not Only a Good Woman, but Good in an Eminent Degree”

Wesley, John. An extract of the life of Madam Guion. London: Printed by R. Hawes, And sold at the Foundry ... & at the Rev. Mr. Wesley's Preaching-Houses, 1776. 12mo ( ). 230 pp.$400.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 Madam Guyon (Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon, 1648–1717) was a French mystic and an advocate of Quietism. Here Wesley extracts portions of her autobiography, first published in English in 1772, and in his comments he “corrects” her doctrinal and other “errors,” especially those associated with her mysticism — at the same time delivering the unequivocally approving comment of our caption.

“The grand source of all her mistakes was this, The not being guided by the written word. She did not take the Scripture for the rule of her actions: at most, it was but the secondary rule” (p. vi).

 ESTC T26579. Publisher's quarter brown calf with stone pattern marbled paper sides, wear at edges through to the boards. Internally, age-toning, some brown stains, finger soiling, short tears in margins. Overall a decent copy of a book scarce on the market. (35220)

 Early U.K. issue of the first edition of one of Wharton’s most widely read novels, though possibly not the most representative of her works; critically acclaimed from its first appearance in 1911, Ethan Frome has been in print continuously ever since, and has become a staple of the Western literary canon. This printing has a cancel title-page dated 1912 instead of 1911, and is the first English printing to incorporate several text corrections as described by Garrison, but is otherwise identical to the Scribners issues of 1911, and shows the expected type batter in “wearily” on p. 135, line 21.

 Published as a Christmas keepsake by Helen and Frank Atschul with a printed presentation note laid in, Wharton's classic tale is here illustrated in color by Edward A. Wilson, with the Overbook pressmark by Thomas Maitland Cleland on the colophon page.

 First edition, first issue (binding A, jacket A), with printing code (I) on p. 432, of the last novel Wharton completed before her death in 1937. A sequel to Hudson River Bracketed, The Gods Arrive continues Wharton’s exploration of conventional morality regarding marriage and relationships, and offers an examination of the writer’s life.

 An LEC edition “planned to evoke Edith Wharton, realist and ironist . . . a period piece set in an exquisite milieu.” Arthur Mizener supplied the introduction and Lily Harmon the 24 illustrations (12 full-page watercolors and 12 black and white sketches), in a volume designed by Philip Grushkin. The text was set in Linotype Fairfield, Bernhard Cursive, and Lucian and printed on Mohawk wove paper; the binding was done by Tapley-Rutter in dark blue buckram with a light blue damask cloth inset on the front cover.

This is numbered copy 733 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the artist. The appropriate newsletter (in original envelope) and prospectus are laid in.

 A collection of poetry by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, known for heroptimistic and plainly written rhyming verse. She is probably best remembered as the author of the immortal “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; / Weep, and you weep alone”; though never favored by critics, she enjoyed an enormous readership and the adoration of many who found resonance in her positive spirituality.

This is a later edition, the first having appeared in 1888. It includes a black and white frontispiece of Wilcox and the poems are divided into three sections: Passional, philosophical, and miscellaneous.

 “I should be glad to send you some points if I had time but as I am just leaving for the West, I take some points from Lady Henry's paper that I think will help.”

Willard (1839–98) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. She was influential in securing passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth (Women Suffrage) Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and for the last 19 years of her life she was the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). “Lady Henry” will have been Lady Henry Somerset, head of the British Women's Temperance Association; the referred-to enclosure is not present.

 Golden Cockerel printing of a 16th-century satire on the evils of women, translated from the original Welsh by Gwyn Williams. The text is illustrated witheleven color-printed engravings of scandalously alluring women plus a decorated title-page done by John Petts. In Cock-a-hoop, Sandford said of this work (along with his quotation used as our caption above), “I had such fun with this book! It was a mad sixteenth century Welshman's idea of how wicked women are, and I felt I would go along with him and make the book as exciting as I could.”

This isnumbered copy 14 of 350 printed, signed by the translator and illustrator. As one of the first 100 numbered copies, it includes one extra illustration and is in the special purple Indian lizard binding done by Sangorski & Sutcliffe — as Sandford put it, genuine snakeskin was unpleasant to the touch, so “my Eves were wrapped in ruby wine-dark lizards.”

 This is theoriginal prospectus/program for the inaugural season of The Living Theatre, an effort of Judith Malina and Julian Beck: It was probably the first experimental theater collaborative in the United States, andthis pamphlet presents a varied and veritable “who's who” of those involved in the exercise: The initial season's performances took place in the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village.

The fore-matter offerings here are: “On Picasso's Desire and T.S. Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes” by J[udith?] M[alina?]; “Reply” by William Carlos Williams; and “In response to a request for a manifesto on music, 1952" by John Cage.

Also present are a few advertisements, and lists of “Who's Who in the Casts,” the staff, and the directors and sponsors of the theater. The image on the front wrapper is a reproduction of a sketch by Picasso of the design for his famous sculpture “Man with a Lamb.”

Curiously, this group of avant garde artists apparently did not feel sufficient solidarity with the working man to have the program printed at a union shop. In fact, it has the feel and look of an “in house” production.

Wilson, William, ed. & illus. A missionary voyage to the southern Pacific Ocean, performed in the years 1796, 1797, 1798, in the ship Duff, commanded by Captain James Wilson. Compiled from journals of the officers and the missionaries; and illustrated with maps, charts, and views ... London: Pr. by S. Gosnell for T. Chapman, 1799. 4to (28.5 cm, 11.25"). [12], c, 420, [12] pp.; 7 fold. maps, 6 plts.$2000.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 First edition.
This account of a mission to Polynesia and Tahiti (funded by the London Missionary
Society) supplies, it must be said, much more by way of the missionary travellers'
interested observations of lands and people's exotic to them than it does reports
of the proselytizations they pursued; it was compiled by chief mate William
Wilson from his own journals and those of Captain James Wilson. Dr. Thomas Haweis,
co-founder of the London Missionary Society, edited the work and the Rev. Samuel
Greatheed provided (anonymously) the “Preliminary discourse; containing
a geographical and historical account of the islands where missionaries have
settled, and of others with which they are connected.” The Hill catalogue
says, “The narrative is fresh, although sometimes naive, and provides
a glimpse of everyday life on the islands that the mariner or naturalist didn't
consider worth reporting.” There is a most interesting Appendix, also,
canvassing everything from native dress to houses to dances to cookery to canoes
to marriage and the place of women to funeral customs — not forgetting human sacrifice and sports.

The volume is illustrated with six plates and seven oversized, folding maps, and includes an extensive list of subscribers. An inferior, less expensive edition appeared in the same year, printed by Gillet; the present example is sometimes identified as the Gosnell edition to distinguish it from the Gillet production.

 ESTC T87461; Hill, Pacific Voyages, 1894; Sabin 49480. Contemporary reverse sheep, framed and panelled in blind, spine with leather title-label; leather peeling at extremities, front joint repaired and back one starting from head, spine with label rubbed and two compartments discolored. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape; front free endpaper lacking. Front pastedown with institutional bookplates; dedication leaf with pressure-stamp in upper margin and rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Title-page and dedication with offsetting to margins; title-page with small hole not touching text. First map foxed, with tears along two folds; sixth map with jagged tear along one inner corner; other maps lightly foxed. Occasional stray small spots of staining and some offsetting from plates onto opposing pages; a few page edges slightly ragged. In sum, in fact, a sound, clean, and pleasant volume. (19603)

Wise, Daniel.Bridal greetings: A marriage gift,
in which the mutual duties of husband and wife are familiarly illustrated and enforced. New York: Carlton & Phillips, 1852. 16mo. Frontis., 160 pp.$42.50

Click the images for enlargements.

 Second edition, following the first of 1850, of these dicta regarding proper Christian management of the connubial state. “If the reader expects to find highly wrought sentimentality or romantic fancies in the succeeding pages, he had better lay them down, and seek for gratification elsewhere,” (p. 3) — but there is some sweetness here in the exhortations to mutual dedication.

This has a very pretty engraved title-page, acting as frontispiece; between the arched words “Bridal Greetings,” above and below, is a bridal bouquet of emblematic flowers, signed F.E. Jones.

First edition: Recipes based on canned foods, arranged by month for maximum seasonal appropriateness. March's suggested dishes include two different Finnan haddie preparations in addition to rice croquettes, asparagus tip omelet, fruit tapioca, kippered herring rarebit, deviled ham and cheese sandwiches, etc. Also present are Mexican salad (April; consisting of cabbage with pineapple, celery, mayonnaise, pimientos, olives, and canned chili sauce), chili sandwiches (May), Mexican meat loaf with tomato sauce (October), and chili sauce (October). The center spread is a color-illustrated “handy chart of delicious soups” and their potential uses, while at the back of the booklet are sections on “Dollar Dinners for Four People,” how to plan food purchases, and suggested diets for growing children.

 Not in Brown, Culinary Americana. Publisher's color-printed wrappers, front wrapper with large butterfly and basket vignette; spine and edges rubbed, back wrapper with small scuffs. Pages mildly age-toned. Two pages with small spot of former adhesion between the two, with loss of a few letters; one leaf with short tear from outer margin, not touching text. An interesting reflection of the changing nature of food marketing and technology in the early 20th century. (36182)